A new proposed rule from the Trump administration aims to make it easier for employers to offer coverage of fertility treatments, as part of larger efforts to expand access to fertility services including in-vitro fertilization.
The new rule released Sunday from the Department of Labor would create a new exempted insurance benefit — in the same category as dental and vision benefit coverage— for treating infertility.
Exempted benefits don’t have to meet certain requirements under the Affordable Care Act and other federal healthcare coverage laws.
The proposal wouldn’t require coverage but would allow companies to offer it if they choose to do so. The rule aims to increase benefit options and make IVF and other fertility treatments more affordable, though the proposed rule does not entirely eliminate costs to the recipient.
“This will hopefully reduce the number of couples who need to resort to IVF, because challenges can be identified and addressed early in the process,” President Trump said during a maternal health event in the Oval Office Monday.
Fertility treatments can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and while most workers of reproductive age receive healthcare coverage through their jobs, the majority do not have robust fertility coverage, the Department of Labor said in a statement.
The employer-sponsored fertility benefits would have a lifetime benefit cap of $120,000 and requirements for the employer to provide a notice that “clearly describes the coverage,” requirements that are similar to other limited excepted benefits.
Under the proposal, the benefits must be for diagnosis, mitigation, or treatment of infertility or related reproductive health conditions.
Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said private companies were “taking advantage” of available treatments.
“As services get better, we make them more affordable, we’ll have more Trump babies,” Oz said Monday.
The rule builds on an executive order signed by Trump in February that asked for policy recommendations to reduce the cost of fertility treatments.
“The decline in birth rates is a serious challenge for our nation,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, this rule expands access to fertility care and gives more Americans a real path to starting and growing their families.”
The American Society of Reproductive Medicine in a statement said it the group was “encouraged” that the Trump administration was continuing to try to make IVF treatments more affordable.
“The latest proposed step, allowing employers to voluntarily provide coverage as an ‘excepted benefit,’ may indeed increase access, but will not yet fulfill that promise,” Sean Tipton, ASRM’s Chief Advocacy and Policy Officer said in a statement.
Tipton noted the proposed rule is merely a draft for public comment, and encouraged “all concerned citizens to review it and make their voices heard.”